Do you remember the first live wrestling event that you ever saw? Where you sat? Who was on the card? I would bet that there are a number of diehards out there that can remember that event so vividly that it has stayed with them after years of wrestling matches on TV and in arenas. Nothing can replace the first time that you saw wrestling from the ringside seats. For me, it was an independent card when I was ten years old.
My dad was somewhat of a sly cat. One day, he rounded up myself and my brother Joe and said we were going for a drive. Naturally, my curiosity got the better of me and I needed to know where we were going. To my delight, my dad said that we were going to the wrestling matches. It was a weekly ritual at our home to sit in front of the boob tube and watch the AWA program. Rick Martel, Jim Brunzell, the Road Warriors, Jerry Blackwell, and many more entertained us weekly and we ate it up.
Pulling up to the community hall in Souris, Manitoba (a town of about 2,500 farmers & small town folk) my dad purchased three tickets from an unshaven dude in the parking lot. "What kind of wrestling is this?" my dad asked. "Professional wrestling. It's all pro" was the answer we got. That did little to answer the question I thought. Was it WWF? AWA? Who was going to be there?
We went inside and found that we were among the first dozen fans in the building. My brother and I raced for prime position in the front row and were instantly in awe of the ring. Who would be gracing the ring tonight? We hoped there would be a battle royal, and maybe a tag team match. As bell time drew nearer, the anticipation grew and by match time there was about 100 people filling the seats in the hall.
The opening match pitted Ricky Reno against Greg Powers. "Who? Who are these guys? Where are the guys from TV?", I thought to myself. However, my concerns quickly faded as the match got underway. These two guys who I had never heard of before started to grapple and pummel each other and it was awesome. Just like TV. [Incidentally, Greg Powers would go on to greater fame internationally as "Evil" Eddie Watts and would years later become a mentor and close friend of mine].
The second match had me on my feet and screaming my lungs out for the duration. Fan favorite Mark Charles stepped in the ring to do battle with the insidious Caveman Broda. Broda, decked out in a red t-shirt with the word "COMMIE" across the front in cheesy 80s iron on letters instantly struck a cord with me and I hated him. Looking similar to a young disheveled Tommy Chong, I distinctly remember remember him engaging me in a war of words on the floor and came right up to me as I screamed back, he reared back with a fist in a threatening gesture which put me back on my seat for a few moments. [Eight years later, Broda would become a tag team partner for myself in River City Wrestling].
Others on the card were Bobby Driver, Corey Peloquin (better known now as Chi Chi Cruz), Mr. Cool, and Butch Murdoch. The finale of the card was a big battle royal with all of the wrestlers from the card returning to the ring for a fight to the finish. It was awesome!! It didn't matter that the wrestlers weren't the guys from TV. They went out there and did all the moves and holds and had those 100 fans so wrapped up in the action that it didn't matter who any of them were.
I was hooked and have been ever since. The independents, which have been my professional home for more than fifteen years have been great to me, and there isn't a night that I don't go out in front of the audience that I forget about that ten year old in the front row many years ago seeing wrestling for the first time. Every night, I aim to give that wrestling fan who is seeing the matches live for the first time the same vivid memories of the spectacle that is independent wrestling.
Now, in the years since I first saw independent matches, the presentation has gotten a lot slicker and the wrestling talent as a whole has gotten worlds better, but at the very foundation, everything is exactly the same. I try to instill this message in all of the young wrestlers that I get a chance to work with. What memories are you making for the fans? What will the people remember about you when they leave the building? Don't believe that every fan will remember your name (even if it's in bold letters across your posterior), but what will they remember? Will they remember if you won or lost? Will they remember what you said? Will they remember your cool moves? How did you make that experience personal and individual for those fans?
In my mind, there will never be a more effective villain that the Caveman Broda of 1986. In that moment, he was the very incarnate of evil. There was no bigger hero than mark Charles who triumphed over every adversity that night. Suffice it to say, entirely too few people even know Caveman Broda or Mark Charles but the memories that they left with me are stuck with me, more than 20 years later.
One of the great thrills for me over the past year was to go back to the Souris Community Hall where I saw my first match and have the chance to wrestle in that venue for Steeltown Pro Wrestling. Sure, there were some folks in the crowd that I had known my whole life, and who probably were there twenty years earlier. But more importantly, there was a large group of kids ranging from about six to twelve years old, that I am pretty certain were seeing their first live match. I know from the matches that I saw with Bobby Jay, Matt Fairlane, Bobby Fox, Kyle Sebastian, Danny Duggan, A.J. Sanchez and the rest of the Steeltown crew, they gave 'em a hell of a show -- maybe one that those kids will be writing about some day.
To my peers in the wrestling game - never forget that we too were once fans, and it may have been a single moment - one interaction, one gesture, one move, one wrestler - that inspired us all to where we have gone. Never forget that those fans, whether cheering or booing, are the reason that we have an opportunity to pursue this dream.
Get out there and leaving some lasting memories!
Vance Nevada